Pennsylvania State Police say a two-year investigation overturned the initial belief that Karen Kistle suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

DINGMAN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — More than two years after Karen Kistle died from a gunshot wound at her Pike County home, Pennsylvania State Police have charged her husband with criminal homicide after investigators concluded that her death was not self-inflicted.

The arrest marks a major reversal in a case that began May 22, 2024, when emergency responders were called to the couple’s residence on Vandien Drive in Dingman Township. Karen Kistle was found with a gunshot wound and died before she could be airlifted to Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton. Authorities initially investigated the possibility that she had shot herself. Pennsylvania State Police now say evidence collected at the home, interviews with witnesses, forensic examination and later investigative findings instead led them to classify the death as a homicide and charge Anthony Kistle.

Anthony Kistle was arrested July 14, 2026, during a traffic stop on northbound Interstate 25 near Castle Pines, Colorado, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Colorado authorities said Kistle had been living in Peyton, east of Colorado Springs. The Colorado State Patrol and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the arrest. The development brought a case that had produced few public updates for more than two years into a new phase, with Pennsylvania authorities seeking Kistle’s return to Pike County to face the allegations.

The criminal homicide charge is accompanied by two counts of theft by unlawful taking, one involving a firearm and the other a motor vehicle, Pennsylvania State Police said. Public statements released around the arrest did not explain the factual basis for those theft counts, identify the firearm or vehicle at issue, or describe how investigators believe they relate to Karen Kistle’s death. Authorities also have not publicly detailed the forensic findings that caused them to reject the earlier possibility of a self-inflicted wound. The charges are allegations, and the available public record does not establish that Anthony Kistle has been convicted of any crime in connection with his wife’s death.

The shift in the investigation is significant because the first public accounts in 2024 were much more limited. The River Reporter and Pocono Record reported at the time that Pennsylvania State Police from the Blooming Grove station were investigating a fatal shooting at the Dingman Township residence. Troopers and Delaware Township Ambulance personnel responded after a report of a gunshot injury. Karen Kistle died before emergency crews could transport her by helicopter. The Pike County District Attorney’s Office and Pike County Coroner’s Office were among the agencies assisting state police, but those early reports did not publicly identify a suspect or announce a criminal charge.

State police offered a clearer explanation when charges were announced in July 2026. The agency said the evidence gathered at the scene, witness interviews, forensic examination and other investigative findings eventually led authorities to determine that Karen Kistle’s death was a homicide rather than the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The statement described categories of evidence but did not disclose the specific conclusions of forensic experts, the substance of the witness interviews or a detailed sequence of events inside the home. Those unanswered questions leave much of the prosecution’s case outside the public record for now.

Friends of Karen Kistle told Colorado television station KRDO that they had questioned the suicide theory long before the arrest. Gerri Malone, described by the station as a longtime friend of Kistle and her family, said Karen had carpal tunnel problems in both hands after years of work at ShopRite and told the station she had difficulty imagining her handling a firearm in the way the initial theory would have required. Malone also questioned why Karen would have used her husband’s gun, as she understood the circumstances, rather than a firearm of her own. Those comments reflect the friends’ doubts, not findings independently established by the public court record.

Another friend and former co-worker, Stephanie Lenihan, described the long period without an arrest as increasingly discouraging. She told KRDO that people close to Karen Kistle assumed investigators were continuing to work because little was being said publicly in Pennsylvania or New Jersey. After the two-year anniversary of the death passed, Lenihan said, she began to worry that nothing would happen. The July arrest brought relief to friends who had continued to hope investigators would reach a conclusion, while also beginning a legal process that remains far from a final determination of guilt or innocence.

Karen Kistle’s obituary provides a fuller picture of the woman whose death became the subject of that extended investigation. It said she was 61 when she died, had been born in Denville, New Jersey, grew up in Newton and later made her home in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania. She was a 1981 graduate of Sussex Vo-Tech and spent roughly 45 years working for Ronetco Supermarkets, where she was known through jobs at the front end and in pharmacy departments. Her obituary described family, particularly her grandchildren, as a central part of her life.

Friends interviewed after the arrest similarly remembered Kistle through her daily work rather than through the circumstances of her death. Lenihan told KRDO that Kistle was known for speaking with people throughout the ShopRite where she worked and for helping customers and co-workers. She said Kistle’s absence was so difficult that she avoided returning to the store for months. Friends also said Karen had suffered another family loss before her own death: her daughter Lauren had been killed in a crash about six months earlier. They said Karen left behind grandchildren for whom they hoped the criminal case might eventually provide answers.

The Colorado arrest added another layer to the investigation because Anthony Kistle was no longer living in Pennsylvania when authorities moved to take him into custody. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation said Pennsylvania officials coordinated with authorities there, and Kistle was stopped shortly before 11 a.m. while traveling north on Interstate 25 near Castle Pines. Rather than being arrested at a Pennsylvania residence or courthouse, he was taken into custody hundreds of miles from Pike County through cooperation involving multiple law enforcement agencies. Public reporting has not established when he moved to Colorado or why.

Questions also remain about the precise timeline between the 2024 death and the filing of charges. State police have not publicly identified a single test, interview or discovery that changed the direction of the case. Their description instead points to an accumulation of scene evidence, witness information, forensic work and later investigative findings. That distinction matters: the public information does not support the conclusion that one newly discovered piece of evidence suddenly solved the case. It supports only the narrower statement that investigators say the body of evidence ultimately led them away from a self-inflicted death and toward a homicide finding.

Public reports have also differed slightly on the ages of Karen and Anthony Kistle. Initial police-based reporting described Karen as 60 at the time of her death, while her published obituary listed her as 61. Reports surrounding Anthony Kistle’s arrest have variously listed him as 45 or 46. Those discrepancies do not change the central allegations but illustrate why the more consequential details in the case must rest on official records as proceedings advance. The confirmed dates and charges are more consistent across the available reporting: Karen died May 22, 2024, and Anthony was arrested in Colorado on July 14, 2026.

As of the latest publicly available reporting consulted for this story, Anthony Kistle was being held in Colorado pending his return to Pennsylvania to answer the charges in Pike County. Authorities had not publicly released a complete account of the evidence supporting the homicide charge, and the available reports did not establish a trial date or final disposition. The case therefore stands at the charging stage, more than two years after Karen Kistle’s death and after investigators say they rejected the explanation that had shaped its earliest phase.

Author note: Last updated August 23, 2026.